


Three Moonshadow Lessons

by beautifulterriblequeen



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Big spider nest of doom, Did I mention the giant spider yet, Gen, Moonshadow elves, Runaan gets to wear his hood, Runaan to the rescue, Shelob's annoying little sister, Young Rayla, soft Runaan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 21:50:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21483400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifulterriblequeen/pseuds/beautifulterriblequeen
Summary: Little Rayla got impatient waiting for Runaan to come visit one afternoon, so her mother sends him out into the forest to catch up. What Runaan finds makes him hood up and go on a rescue mission.
Relationships: Runaan & Rayla
Comments: 24
Kudos: 101





	Three Moonshadow Lessons

When Runaan arrived at the bright blue door near the edge of the forest, Rayla’s mother was already leaning against its jamb, arms crossed, gray eyes sparking. He slowed his approach, reading her body language. Her hands were tucked into fists—never a good sign—but her shoulders were tight and she was breathing a little faster than normal. Worst of all, she was leaning toward Runaan from the shoulders up. He wasn’t in trouble. _Rayla_ was.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“Not wi’ you, obviously,” the veteran warrior sassed.

Runaan stilled and sighed. Rayla was a determined five-year-old, strong-willed and eager, and with the lull in hostilities, her parents’ best friend from battles past had become her favorite new playmate. But sometimes Runaan had extra duties that delayed his visits to her house, and Rayla would grow impatient and dart off to play in the forest without him. He’d tried to speak to her about safety, responsibility, and lying, but she hadn’t yet learned to differentiate those from the general Moonshadow concept of illusion.

And so, naturally, every time Rayla broke the rules, it was Runaan’s fault. He never minded, though. Having Rayla’s mother value his presence in her daughter’s life so much that she chastised him when it didn’t go as planned was a very Moonshadow compliment, and it warmed Runaan’s heart.

Runaan slid his eyes toward the shadowy tree line. “I’ll fetch her back. Which way did she go?”

Rayla’s mother tipped her horns and gave him a blunt stare. “One piece, Runaan. You know how sharp me blades are when I’m tetchy.”

Runaan’s goal had always been to bring Rayla back in one piece. The little elfling was a joy and a bright spark of life in his dark and shadowy world. Her mother, though, was far more like Runaan. He knew exactly how to sass her, because Rayla sassed them both the same way. “Yes, grumpy soldier ma’am, at your command.”

He flitted into the trees before Rayla’s mother could spin around and pin him with her steely death glare, and his grin rode alongside his determination into the shadows of the forest.

It didn’t take him long to find the direction Rayla had taken. The two of them had planted glow poppies together last spring, each color a row of glowing blossoms leading off into the deep unknown. Rayla always plucked a glowing petal from one of the flowers and left it on top of a big rock for him to find. Her impatience may have led her into the forest without Runaan, but she was never sneaking away from him—she wanted to be found.

Today’s petal was a bright purple, so Runaan followed the purple poppies deep into the woods, keeping his eyes and ears peeled as he perched in tree after tree. But Rayla wasn’t at any of her usual haunts. The deepwillow grotto lay hushed and empty. The moon moth hollow was unusually silent and dark. The Bramble Castle sat entirely abandoned.

The whole forest was hushed, in fact. Only one thing could do that. Runaan’s focus shifted like a whip crack, and he shot to his feet with all his senses on full alert.

A predator had come to the wood.

_It’s not the only one._

Shifting back into assassin mode, Runaan yanked his hood up over his horns. He leaped from tree to tree, seeking signs from the forest and its creatures, letting the world speak to him in its bountifully silent way. A few miles from the village—Rayla’s endurance really was impressive—he leaped into a neat crouch on a broad tree branch and came face to face with Rayla’s fate.

Rayla’s little boot prints tracked across soft soil below. They moved slowly and steadily, as if she were practicing her stalking. Runaan could easily picture her small, stealthy movements.

And then her footsteps simply _vanished_. A tiny spray of dirt flung by her heel was the only indication of what might have befallen her. Runaan stared down at that vital clue, eyes glowing in the dimness beneath his hood. His jaw clenched, and his eyes slid back up to the trees.

The wind rustled the leaves in the forest and Runaan was gone again, a darting shadow leaping among shadows. He knew what he sought now. Everything in his being, every second of training, every beat of his heart, all focused on one goal: _Save Rayla. No matter what it takes._

He landed silently on a tree limb and nearly brushed against the first true sign of evidence that indicated his target. One of his side tails fluttered out of his hood as he crouched, and he reached out and corralled it with a finger before it could get stuck in the thick white web that stretched from his tree branch to the next. Any sensation on such sensor webs would alert their maker to his presence. He’d landed at the edge of a vast early alert system, where every breath, every move, would announce his existence. Not only as a threat, but as a meal.

_Rayla, what have you gotten yourself into?_ She always sought the greatest challenge, the hardest path, and found herself in the deepest trouble. She would be entirely unstoppable at whatever she chose to do with her life. If she lived that long.

Runaan scanned the rough clearing before him. A copse of dead trees offered spindly supports for a central node of webbing that nearly obscured them from sight, save for their thick trunks. The silk-wrapped snags rose high above his perch, and the late afternoon sun sparkled through the webbing, lighting it with soft shadows and glints. It was beautiful and deadly, and Runaan couldn’t help but appreciate its Moonshadow nature for a brief moment.

Silken strands stretched from the central web nest to living trees around it, creating bridges and barriers, criss-crossing in all directions, making a stealthy approach nearly impossible. And Runaan would need one, because there in the central nest, he could see the faint outline of the giant spider who’d spun herself this deadly dwelling.

A shivermist spider. Lean and tight in body, with long delicate legs, the black-and-gray shivermist would tower over Runaan if they ever came face to face on even ground. Runaan vastly preferred that they did not. A shivermist’s palps were more like tentacles, much harder to escape than other spiders, and the spider’s mist, produced from the needle-like spines that sprouted like a lion’s mane from its head, was designed to produce hallucinations and euphoria, making prey easier to catch.

Runaan took a deep breath and tried to analyze the situation logically. The spider would store Rayla in a web net for later consumption. _She’d be a tiny meal anyway_— At that horrible thought and the visualization that came with it, the entirety of Runaan’s chill fled, and an icy panic blossomed in his gut.

_Stay calm_, he told himself. _You’ve been in dozens of battles, back to back with Rayla’s parents. You can handle a single spider._

_The spider, yes, _he replied. _Not the thought of Rayla getting hurt. She’s… she’s done nothing to deserve such a fate. Unlike me. _As that thought settled into Runaan’s chest, he knew what he’d be willing to risk to save Rayla. _Everything_.

With his determination firmly reset, Runaan bounded lightly around the edge of the webbing, careful not to touch a single strand as he leaped from tree to tree, seeking the safest approach—and the safest way back out. Finally, he spotted a clear tree branch that extended halfway toward the central nest.

He crouched at the spot where the limb met the trunk and studied his potential springboard. He could leap straight at the nest and slash his way in with his boot daggers. He could aim for one of the dead branches sticking out of the massive nest. But both of those approaches would shake the webbing and announce his presence.

Runaan leaned forward onto the fingers of one hand and glanced downward. A clear landing spot lay below on the barren ground. It would have to do.

He closed his eyes for a long moment in the shadow of his assassin’s hood and focused, clearing his mind of every worry, every concern.

_There is only the mission: save Rayla._

Runaan’s bright turquoise eyes flew open, and he flowed into motion, running along the tree limb and hurling himself into empty space. His hood fluttered with the speed of his fall as he pivoted and tucked and twirled, avoiding strands of webbing that crossed his trajectory. Runaan landed in a perfect three-point position, eyes already on his next target: a narrow gap in the webbing around one of the dead tree trunks.

In three strides, Runaan was shimmying up the tree trunk through the narrow gap, keeping his eyes open for stray webs. As he climbed up into the vast shivermist nest, the bright daylight dimmed to soft shadowy hues that, despite the intense danger, Runaan found comfortably pleasing. The inside of the spider’s nest felt like being surrounded by bright moonlight.

Runaan paused atop a leafless limb and crouched warily, studying the inside of the nest as it ballooned up around him. Several trees arched up into its clouded height and faded from view, hidden behind internal silken sheets. Clear paths that the shivermist used to move from tree to tree offered Runaan the quickest way to travel, but also the greatest chance of being caught. The spider’s ominous shadow lurked far above, and she could descend at any moment, whether for defense or for that tiny elfling snack.

Runaan needed to find Rayla. His eyes scanned the white-on-white for any sign of motion.

A faint sneeze reached his ears, and he leaned a little to the left, spotting a dangling blob of webbing just behind a dead tree halfway across the nest, at least a hundred feet away.

“I _said_, ‘_achoo’_!” Rayla’s grumpy voice reached Runaan’s disbelieving ears. Fake sneezes were their inside joke during hide-and-seek. Hearing one deep within the shivermist’s nest drenched Runaan with a new version of reality as if he’d tumbled into an icy waterfall. Rayla wasn’t even the tiniest bit scared. She even sounded_ impatient._

_She knows I’m coming for her. She’s expecting me._

Runaan’s heart warmed so brightly that his hard focus wavered for a moment. His eyebrows raised in soft surprise, and a tiny smile flickered at the corner of his mouth.

_Not quite as foolish as I thought, Rayla. You know me very well. I _am_ coming for you, even if it kills me. _

Runaan’s focus sharpened once again, and he launched himself from his perch. A series of acrobatic jumps sent him leaping from tree to tree, climbing ever higher, avoiding the shivermist’s silken tripwires, until he clung to the side of the tree nearest Rayla’s dangling web. He braced himself against its dead and cracking bark with his feet and held on with one hand. Even so, Rayla swung just out of his reach.

He couldn’t see her through the thick silken cocoon that held her. Maybe she couldn’t see him, either. Just in case, though, he pulled his hood down off his horns and felt his long ponytail tumble down his back. Rayla was far too soft to see him in full assassin mode. “Rayla,” he whispered.

“Runaan!” Her tiny hands pressed against the webbing from inside, forming four-fingered impressions. “What took you so long?”

His heart rate skyrocketed, and he shot a wary look upward. Naturally, the most dangerous part of this rescue mission would be the five-year-old being rescued. “Rayla, keep your voice down,” Runaan hissed. “The shivermist spider is just above us.”

“Sorry, Runaan. Being captured by a giant spider is way more boring than I thought. Can we go home now?”

Runaan kept his voice light. “Yes, Rayla. I’m here to take you home. Swing toward me, and I’ll cut open your webbing. Then you’ll need to jump to me, or you’ll fall. Can you do that?”

“You bet.”

Such an eager response made Runaan grin again. _This elfling, I swear to the Moon. _He glanced warily upward. The shivermist’s vague outline had shifted, as if she were listening, feeling her webs for intruders. Runaan drew a dagger from his boot.

Rayla got her teardrop of webbing to start swinging, and the little grunts of effort she made while doing so were adorable. She was trying so hard to help him save her.

But the shivermist had grown suspicious. The great beast began easing herself down through the webbing, taking it slow, still uncertain what was going on.

Runaan glared up at its approaching bulk, still out of direct eye contact. His original plan of taking Rayla down the way he’d come in was useless now that the spider had sensed them.

_Time for a quicker escape._

Rayla finally swung herself into reach, and Runaan delicately sliced the silk cocoon open, revealing Rayla tucked up inside like a pea in a pod. “Now jump!”

With a grin as wide as her outstretched arms, Rayla launched herself into midair and thudded against Runaan, squeezing him in a giant hug. He caught her and held her tightly with his free arm, reassuring himself with her sheer weight and warmth. A trickle of his tension faded away. He had her with him now. She wasn’t safe yet, but she was safer than she’d been a minute ago.

She pulled back and smiled up at him sunnily. “I knew you’d come, Runaan. I wasn’t scared at all.”

He kept his smile to a tolerant softness. “You’re very brave, Rayla, and I’m proud of you. But we need to work together, and swiftly, because the shivermist is coming. Are you ready?”

“Tell me what I need to do, and I’ll do it,” Rayla replied conspiratorially.

“Climb to my back and hold on tight.”

“Is that _all_?” Rayla replied grumpily as she began clambering over Runaan’s shoulder with all the agility of a crescent monkey.

Runaan felt the weight of his newly freed ponytail. “No, I need you to tuck my hair into my hood and roll it up tight. That will keep me safe from the spider webs.”

“Yes, Runaan.”

While Runaan kept his eyes on the approaching spider, Rayla locked her legs around his waist from behind and began tucking his hair inside his hood with deft little fingers. His hair probably didn’t need protection, but his escape plan was very do or die. Letting Rayla help would make her feel better, and it might actually prove useful—

The shivermist lunged downward through layers of webbing, breaking strands left and right, and Runaan’s prep time was suddenly up. Her long, spearlike feet reached for him. Those freakish tentacle palps warbled out a grotesque attack cry, and she shook her body, releasing a cloud of dangerous hallucinogenic mist that drifted down toward him and his precious cargo.

“Hold on, Rayla!” Runaan crouched and sprang off the tree, dagger still in hand, and felt Rayla’s little arms lock around his neck from behind. Her face buried itself against his neck, and for a fleeting moment, weightless in mid-leap, Runaan felt entirely buoyed by her fierce, childlike love.

_Moon and shadow, I will absolutely die for this child._ The realization blossomed in his chest, full of light and warmth. _But not today._ _Today, we live._

Runaan’s dagger slashed hard against the dead tip of a tree branch as he leaped out of the shivermist’s long-legged reach. He caught the three-foot-long fragment in his free hand and twirled it through the thickest webs he could reach as he and Rayla plummeted toward the ground. Gradually, the straining silk began to hold his weight. Runaan’s initial leap had carried him straight toward the outer wall of the nest, and as the webs slowed his descent, he began to pendulum out toward the nest’s edge.

But the spider was clambering straight after them, howling her low, burbling cry. Rayla’s arms tightened sharply, and Runaan knew she was finally afraid. She wasn’t alone in her fears, but Runaan needed to focus. He shoved his feelings down and slashed his dagger through the nest wall. With a reluctant tear, the thick, tough webbing gave way, and Runaan and Rayla swung out into the clearing.

Runaan let go of the tree branch, but too much webbing had wrapped his hand along with the branch, and he only fell a few inches before it held him fast. He and Rayla began to pendulum back inside the nest. If they couldn’t drop safely to the ground outside, they’d be face to face with the furious shivermist spider in moments.

He’d given Rayla an easy task. Now she had the better angle for a critical one.

“Rayla, quickly.” Runaan handed her the dagger, and she took it, slicing sharply between his trapped fingers and the web-entangled wood.

They were falling, free.

Runaan slipped the dagger from Rayla’s hand and tucked it into his boot. He landed with a spinning skid that carried him halfway to the tree line around the clearing, and he glared warily back toward the towering nest, watchful for pursuit.

Rayla scrambled forward until her tummy rested atop Runaan’s shoulder and jabbed a tiny finger toward the monstrous creature. “Take that, silvermist spider! No one can stop Runaan! He’s the best Moonshadow assassin in Xadia! You should know better than to mess with him!”

The shivermist spider shrieked out at them and began to bind up the slash in its nest, clearly not interested in putting in even more work for so little food.

Rayla inhaled and jabbed her finger forward a second time. “And another thing—!”

Runaan clapped a hand over Rayla’s mouth, keeping his eyes on the spider. He eased out of his fighting stance, catching his breath. “Let’s claim the victory we’ve earned, little shadow. No need to get greedy.” But his chastisement was soft, just like he was in the face of her indomitable spirit.

Rayla giggled softly against his hand, and he pulled it away. She offered him a conspiratorial grin. “You did it, Runaan. You saved me.”

Runaan couldn’t help grinning back. He glanced back toward the spider. “Come with me, Rayla. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Soon, the pair sat on a mossy boulder near a creek that ran through the soft purple shadows of evening with a bright murmuring tumble. It reminded Runaan of Rayla’s fearlessness. Runaan sliced a corner of his tunic free and dipped it in the creek before using it to dab at smudges of dirt on Rayla’s face. “You’re sure you’re not hurt?” he asked.

“I told you, I’m fine,” she said with a sassy pout.

Runaan raised a doubtful eyebrow. “Your mother will have my hide if you’re lying to me.”

“Your hide is safe,” Rayla replied. “The spider didn’t stab me with poison or _anything_. Look.” She held out her arms and turned them over for him.

Runaan desisted at her show of evidence. “Very well. Tell me, Rayla, how did the spider catch you?”

“She snuck up on me! It wasn’t fair!” Rayla crossed her little arms and made a grumpy face.

Runaan turned her chin to the side and cleaned off a smudge on her cheek, ruining her expressive moment. “And how did she sneak up on you?” he asked quietly.

“She was up in the trees, lurking. I was just exploring, and then _whoomp_!” Rayla flung her hands into the air. “Next thing I knew, I was swinging by my ankles from a sticky web and gettin’ dizzy from bein’ spun into a web cocoon.”

Runaan ran his cleaning cloth along one of Rayla’s horns, pulling sticky webbing off of it. “And what did you learn from that encounter?”

Rayla sighed again. “I didn’t learn _anything_. Spiders are dumb.”

Runaan sat back and rested his hands in his lap. And waited.

Rayla looked up at him curiously, then suspiciously. “What?”

He dipped his horns gently. “You tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

But Runaan simply waited quietly. Rayla was a high-spirited and intensely determined elfling, and the best way to help her see new concepts was to challenge her to find them herself. And Rayla loved few things more than trying to figure out what Runaan was hiding from her.

Rayla put her hands on her knees and leaned forward, studying Runaan’s face as if it held all the answers. “Fine, I’ll figure it out,” she said. “I learned that… that… shivermist spiders are a thing. Their webs are super sticky, and touching them can tell the spider that you’re nearby. Also, yelling is bad, even when you’re happy to get rescued. And they can somehow fit up in trees. Probably because they have skinny butts. So… I should check the trees over my head more often, in case there’s something up there. Like a giant dumb skinny-butt spider.”

Runaan couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. “Well done, Rayla. That’s a very good first lesson. Let’s get you home.”

The elves trekked back through the woods toward Rayla’s house in companionable silence. Runaan slowed his long strides so Rayla could keep up, though he also found himself waiting repeatedly while she dashed along a fallen log or pointed out glowing mushrooms to him and gave them names. The tallest mushrooms were always named Runaan. Finally, just as the light of the village clearing came into view, Rayla said, “I’m sorry I ran off without you, Runaan. I knew you’d rescue me. I really did. But I should’ve waited for you, and I didn’t.”

Runaan tousled Rayla’s short white hair. “I knew you’d figure out the second lesson.”

Rayla stood taller under his hand and beamed. “Can you stay for supper?”

Runaan’s heart warmed, and he looked ahead toward Rayla’s house. _To belong somewhere… What a gift. Rayla has no idea what she’s already given me, and now she offers more of it. _“Yes, I can stay for supper. But before we see your mother, we have an important decision to make.” At Rayla’s questioning look, he added, “How much of this adventure we should tell her.”

“But I want to tell her all of it!” Rayla protested.

“You do, hmm?” Even knowing that Rayla’s mother would probably draw at least one blade on him for letting Rayla get into trouble like that, Runaan couldn’t keep the fond smile off his face. “Very well.”

After their meal, Rayla threw herself into a spirited reenactment of the spider rescue story, playing the roles of herself, Runaan, and the spider. Her parents laughed helplessly at her terrible imitation of Runaan’s softer accent, while Runaan hid his blushing cheeks behind his hands and tried to stifle his chuckles. But he was impressed with her ability to mimic his movements with such accuracy. She’d truly inherited her parents’ battle skills.

Rayla’s mother turned to Runaan at the very end of the rollicking tale. With arched brows and a warning tone, she asked, “Well now, Runaan, is that _really_ what you two got up to in the forest today?”

Runaan sat up straight and looked at Rayla, then at her mother. “Of course it was,” he said, too quickly. “That’s exactly what happened in every way.”

Rayla’s mother snorted and shook her head. “I should’ve known. Spinning tales and chasing shadows, the pair o’ you.”

The conversation turned, and Rayla looked at Runaan with baffled suspicion. But the assassin just shot her a quick wink. She sidled up to him and whispered in his ear. “That’s lesson three, isn’t it? Making the truth look like a lie so my mum doesn’t stab you.”

Runaan dropped a kiss atop her white hair. “A lesson in truthful illusion, little shadow. You got to tell your story, your mother didn’t get upset, and I didn’t get stabbed. Everyone wins.”

Overcome with glee, Rayla threw her arms around Runaan’s neck, surprising him with an enthusiastic hug. “You’re the best, Runaan. When I grow up, I wanna be just like you.”

After a stunned moment, Runaan returned Rayla’s tight hug, brimming with softness for her unwavering trust in him. _I love you, too._

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a convo with @Ladyandherbooks. Thank you, this was so much fun to write!


End file.
